Ex-BizJet Official Pleads Guilty in Foreign Bribe Scheme

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- A former executive at Lufthansa
Technik’s BizJet International Sales & Support, a U.S. unit of
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe
government officials in Mexico and Panama.

Bernd Kowalewski, 57, the former president and chief
executive officer of BizJet, is the third most senior executive
of the company to plead guilty in the case, the Justice
Department said in a statement. He pleaded guilty today in
federal court in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to conspiracy to violate the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the department said.

The government in March 2012 announced a deferred
prosecution agreement with BizJet and an $11.8 million monetary
penalty to resolve charges related to the FCPA. The FCPA
prohibits bribing foreign government officials to gain a
commercial advantage.

Kowalewski paid bribes to officials in exchange for their
assistance in securing contracts for BizJet, according to
charges filed in federal court in Tulsa in January 2012.
Kowalewski was arrested in Amsterdam and appeared in court
today, according to the statement.

Peter DuBois, the former vice president of sales and
marketing, and Neal Uhl, a former vice president of finance,
pleaded guilty to the same charge in 2012, according to the
statement.

Jald Jensen, a former sales manager at BizJet, has been
indicted for conspiracy as well as money laundering and is
believed to be living abroad, according to the statement.

Electronic court records for the case didn’t identify the
lawyers for the former executives.

The case is U.s. v. Bizjet International Sales and Support,
Inc., 4:12-cr-00061, U.S. District Court, Northern District of
Oklahoma (Tulsa).